Maps generally include geographic features such as rivers, lakes and mountains, as well as man-made architectural structures such as streets and roads, and boundaries defined between regions such as countries and states. Subsets of larger map areas can be provided in accordance with a selected zoom setting as geographic regions that can be displayed on a screen of a processor-based digital device that has a limited area and a limited number of pixels.
FIGS. 1A-1C schematically illustrate three example zoom settings that feature geographic regions that differ in the real area but occupy a similar pixel area on a display screen. FIGS. 1A-1C illustrate screen shots of a same location on a map at three zoom levels referred to in this example as blocks, neighborhoods and cities. For a same geographic location and display screen size, regions of greater zoom are generally included within lower zoom regions, while greater zoom regions typically include more details and features per unit of real area than lower zoom regions. In the example of FIGS. 1A-1C, the regions featured in the screen shot corresponding to the highest of three example zoom settings are the city blocks of FIG. 1A, while regions of lesser zoom may feature the neighborhoods illustrated at FIG. 1B, and regions of still lesser zoom may feature the cities of FIG. 1C.
Geographic regions of various sizes and locations can have subjective, objective or commercial meanings that conventional maps do not convey. It is desired to have a map that is configured to convey meanings associated with geographic regions on a map. As described in accordance with example embodiments below, meanings may be conveyed by associating digital images with geographic map regions.